What are you most afraid of?
When the certainties of life and your plans are pulled away, and the underlying fragilities of being human are revealed, what evokes a sense of unease, worry, stress or fear in you?
For some, it may be fear of death itself, or the dying process. For some it may be getting accepted into an education program that you really want because of the plans you have for life.
Maybe it’s a recent health diagnosis? Maybe it’s worry about your children as you see them wandering down a path that concerns you. Maybe it’s financial concerns, political concerns. Maybe it’s simply putting food on the table.
Could it be the PTSD that you are dealing with because of your military, police, firefighting or paramedic work? Maybe it’s your own childhood trauma.
I don’t take the deep peace in Christ I know for granted. I nurture it. I also know disruptions to this peace when storms in life blow. I also know that on this Father’s Day, my father is not doing too well, my siblings are carrying a heavy load, as we all try to support my mother in her role as primary caregiver to my father.
It’s not easy. But I know God’s peace in the midst of it all. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Jesus never promised anywhere in Scripture that life was going to be easy. But Jesus did assure us of peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Psychologically speaking, if the underlying issues of our lack of peace are not brought to the fore, discussed and dealt with in the healthy way, they will come out in unhealthy ways.
Likewise, spiritually speaking, challenges in life are a gateway to deepen into the fragility of the human existence and they can reveal an ancient pathway that sustains the human soul as we journey from this side to the other.
It’s a journey from fear to freedom, and it has been well trodden.
The Gospel today gives us a deep insight into this journey through life - a journey from this side of the great waters of life – to the other side. This journey with Jesus comes with the gentleness of his suggestion, “Let us go across to the other side.”
There is no coercion involved in this suggestion. They are all fishermen, used to the volatile conditions of the Sea of Galilee. At 250 meters below sea-level and about 13 kilometers across, it is surrounded with mountains which can cause winds to unexpectedly whip up a storm. At any rate, these hardy fishermen head out to sea, at Jesus’ suggestion, who they had come to follow in life.
Let us go across to the other side is in invitation to journey through life with Jesus.
Let us go across to the other side is an invitation to journey from this life to the next with Jesus.
Let us go across to the other side is an invitation to see life through a spiritual lens rather than simply a material lens.
So, we take Jesus up on this offer, we get in the boat and voyage with him to the other side.
We know it’s getting dark, but we trust Jesus.
We trust Jesus until the storm blows and we start taking on water.
We trust Jesus until the fear kicks in because it dark and stormy and, Jesus, the person you trusted is asleep at the helm. But he is not just asleep, the text says he is asleep on a cushion.
We fear for our lives. The boat is sinking. Do you care, Jesus? Where are you now, God, in the midst of this? I trusted you! It doesn’t seem like you care because we are going to die here and you are asleep on a cushion. This is ridiculous, why did I ever trust this guy. I can’t believe I am going to die like this. I am such a fool. How did this happen. My own plans were much better.
I should have trusted myself.
I sailed twice from Halifax to Newport, Rhode Island in a sailboat. Both times the conditions were quite challenging. I liken the second trip to being in a washing machine. In fact, Deacon David Viscount, who has been assigned to this parish was with me on the second trip. Ask him to tell you the story about the first 36 hours of the trip. Not exactly fun.
I can’t imagine being asleep in the stern, comfortably tucked up with a cushion, in a storm. But that is how the text describes Jesus.
The storm broke and I had the morning watch when we made landfall off Cape Cod. This is the picture I took.
It was hard to believe it was so storm just ten hours earlier.
There is an important spiritual threshold here that we must confront. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that “the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit is God, given to us through God the Son, from God the Father. This divine power is in each of us and you have no idea how strong, how brave, how inspiring, how humble in your courageous you can be until you surrender your idea of power in this material world to the power of the Holy Spirit working through you.
When you wake up the Holy Spirit in you, when you bring your fear to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus who seems asleep in the stern, you will discover that Jesus is alive and well, and with you every step of the way.
Jesus is in this storm.
Jesus is in this storm.
Jesus is in the storm of parish amalgamation.
Jesus in in the storm of sickness, fear, depression and anxiety.
Jesus is in the storm of your hurting marriage.
Jesus is in the storm of your self-loathing.
Jesus is in the storm of your grief.
Jesus in in the storm of your cancer treatments.
The source of peace is in the midst of the storm. But first we need to wake up to the fragility of the human experience and call upon Jesus. Wake up the Holy Spirit that you may think has been dormant in you. Call upon him and ask him as the disciples did, “Do you not care that we are perishing here?”
What then, how do we more deeply know this source of peace?
I recommend you commit to three disciplines.
I will call them:
Gospel Reading
Prayer
Sacrament
GPS…
Gospel: Read the Gospel daily. If this intimidates you, start with the Mass readings and read commentaries on the scripture. That’s why Fr James has recommended “The Word Among Us,” it has daily reflections on the daily mass readings.
Prayer: After reading a bit of Scripture and having read a commentary on it, spend some time in prayer. What does the reading mean to you? Is there something that was in the text or in the commentary that resonated with you? Why was that?
Sacrament: I know we are in the midst of a Covid lockdown, but in the weeks ahead, when things start to open up, get out weekly to go to Mass and to receive the Blessed Sacrament. I also recommend making a good confession to better open yourself up, to be free to receive the graces the Holy Spirit has to offer you.
What are you most afraid of?
Jesus is in that fear with you. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. Wake the Holy Spirit up within you. Call on Jesus.
And may you know a peace that surpasses all understanding.
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